​The population of Southeastern Ukraine, expressing their discontent with the current government in Kiev are facing increasingly violent intimidation. A recent anti-Maidan motor rally in Zaporozhye was attacked by ‘self-defense’ nationalist thugs.

Fighters from the local Maidan self-defense nationalist squad
blocked and attacked a column of cars bearing Russian, regional
and Ukrainian flags that was heading from a neighboring town of
Melitopol to join an anti-government rally in Zaporozhye last
week.

The anti-Maidan activists gathered on Lenin Square to rally for
Ukraine joining the Customs Union and to protect the Russian
language in the region, an activist from Melitopol, Ekaterina
Umonets told RT. To support their cause, some 15 cars and two
mini-buses, left Meritopol to join the protest movement in
Zaporozhye, a city of over 750,000 people.

“When the motor rally was about to enter Zaporozhye, it
became clear that an ambush was being organized by the Maidan
criminals,” eyewitnesses Artyom Tymchenko told RT.

Once the motorists reached the bus and railway station
ultra-right forces attacked the cars to block their movement.

“Near the railway station the column was stopped by the
Maidan bandits, who started beating people, taking their
property, smashing cars,” Tymchenko says.

Maidan self-defense forces justified their actions by saying that
they “suspected” the presence of weapons in the cars,
and thus reacted to the “pro-Russian separatists and
provocateurs,” local media reported. Local authorities
however did not report any weapons in possession of the
activists.

The motorists, with many women and elderly people among them, say
they suffered “a sudden attack by members of the Right
Sector.” The police in the meantime provided little to no
help as the attackers continued to intimidate the activists.

“The police, who are supposed to sort out the situation, are
not going about their job with any enthusiasm, and although the
attackers didn't hide their faces, no one has been arrested so
far. Which simply leads to the conclusion that they acted under
the protection of the criminals currently in power.”

One of the members of the nationalist gang was injured when he
fell off the hood of a moving car as he tried to halt a vehicle,
instead falling and breaking a leg, according to some reports.
Activists however said he stood up and walked away fine after the
collision.

Anti-Maidan protests in Zaporozhye are being held under an "Our
Town" slogan and is headed by Vladimir Balagura. Following the
attack on the car convoy, "Our Town" organized a fundraiser to
repair the damaged vehicles.

On Tuesday representatives from "Our Town" movement appealed to
the leaders of the Right sector and local Maidan self-defense
squads to disarm their men

“It is very scary to witness when people are running at you
with weapons, shovels, and batons, with chains, metal rods,”
an Our Town representative said after a meeting with the local
governor Valery Baranov, as she urged authorities to “get rid
of these men from our streets and disarm them.”

In another worrying incident this week, a group of Ukrainian
vigilantes have been hunting out people they accused of being
"pro-Russian thugs" in Dnepropetrovsk in eastern
Ukraine.

In the meantime Right Sector, the most prominent nationalist
movement in Ukraine has become a political party, with their
leader Dmitry Yarosh, who is wanted on terrorist charges in
Russia, running as a presidential candidate in Ukraine elections
on May 25.

The Right Sector manifesto, announced in early January 2014 said,
that “all those who at this point would try to tame the
revolutionary energy of the masses should be proclaimed traitors
and punished in the most severe way,” GlobalSecurity.org
quotes. “Death to the regime of internal occupation! Freedom
or death! Glory to Ukraine!” says the group in their appeal
to the nation.

Actions by the ultra-right fighters in Ukraine have been
relentlessly criticized by the Russian government, and have
recently received wide condemnation by the EU.